Though Portugal was a pioneer in European expansion and the administration of a global empire, historiographers of political thought have not given the Portuguese contribution the attention it deserves. Paradoxically, Portugal's pioneering spirit is likely the cause of this lack of intellectual interest. As a forerunner, it actively participated in only one of the three major revolutions in European thought—the discovery of the New World—while sitting out the Reformation and Enlightenment. Consequently, it built and managed an empire within a Catholic framework. As a result, Portugal was never associated with significant contributions to modern political thought. The Portuguese were considered backward and antimodern—a topos of the anti-Catholicism promoted by imperial rivals. Even though the triumphalism of the European Enlightenment narrative has been losing its appeal with the study of non-Western political thought, the political thinking of the Iberian world, and particularly Portugal, has yet to receive significant attention. Pedro Cardim and Nuno Gonçalo Monteiro, in collaboration with Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought, help to fill this gap by making available for the first time in English an anthology of the political thought produced in Portugal and its overseas empire, mainly Brazil.
Historians by training, the editors gathered a wide-ranging body of political thinking from numerous sources. Besides the usual political treatises, the readers will find Scholastic commentaries, historical narratives, letters, religious sermons, legal documents, royal charters, theological treatises, reform projects, and even Camões's epic The Lusiads. The material is organized roughly chronologically in three main sections. Part 1, “Political Thought, Empire, and Global Rule,” provides texts from the sixteenth century, when Portuguese thinkers under the influence of humanism combined the Roman imperial vocabulary with the Christian missionary zeal to order and legitimize the new territorial possessions. Part 2, “Politics within a Catholic Framework,” deals with the political debates, imperial reorganization, and intellectual reconceptualization after the Council of Trent, the Portuguese Restoration War, and the intensification of European colonial rivalry. Due to the limited impact on Portugal of the Reformation, the late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries were marked by the influence of Catholicism, Neo-Scholasticism, and the Inquisition, but also by debates on legitimacy, the right to resist tyranny (in the context of the dissolution of the Iberian Union), and political realism. The distinct nature of Portuguese political thought is evident in the question of the right to resist tyranny. They applied Neo-Thomism (Suarez and Bellarmine) to justify their rebellion against Spain.
Part 3, “Political Thought in the Age of Enlightenment,” focuses on the eighteenth-century attempt to reform the Portuguese state and empire in the context of enlightened despotism. The selections of this period show the rise of absolute monarchy, the effort to curb the influence of religion, especially the Jesuit order, and different reform proposals, fiscal, economic, educational, and administrative. Regarding imperial administration, the texts show a new policy towards Amerindians and the abolition of slavery in the metropolis. The documents reveal some fundamental pillars of Portuguese political thought: (a) the role of Catholicism and Neo-Scholasticism; (b) the legalistic framework of Portugal's political ideas and practice; (c) the pragmatism of context-oriented thinking; and (d) the absence of political radicalism.
Political theorists and historians interested in European colonialism and the history of political ideas will find meaningful discussions of concepts such as empire (João de Barros [1533], Damião Góis [1539], Camões [1572]), just war (António Pinheiro [1556], Fernando Oliveira [1555]), tyranny and political authority (Diogo Lopes Rebelo [1496], Jerónimo Osório [1571]), religious intolerance and anti-Semitism (João de Barros [1543], Amador Arrais [1589]), political legitimacy (Francisco Velascos de Gouveia [1644]), and political realism and reason of state (João Salgado de Araújo [1627], Sebastião César de Meneses [1649–50]). Other topics treated include international law and diplomacy (Serafim de Freitas [1625], Luís da Cunha [1736], Alexandre de Gusmão [1734]), African slavery and the treatment of Amerindians (Manuel da Nóbrega [1558], António Vieira [1686–92], Diretório dos Índios [1755–58], Luís Pinto de Sousa Coutinho [1778]), educational reform and education of women (Luís António Verney [1746], António Ribeiro Sanches [1760]), church and state relations (António Pereira de Figueredo [1766]), citizenship (Pascoal de Melo Freire [1789]), political representation (António Ribeiro dos Santos [1789]), and political and economic reforms in the context of the Enlightenment (Rodrigo de Souza Coutinho [1786, 1797]).
In anthologies, editors must decide between offering a wide range of brief texts or fewer but more integral works. The editors chose the first option, which allowed them to include thirty-six documents from twenty-nine authors. The benefits and the downsides are evident. Readers should be aware that sometimes the text included does not represent the entirety of an author's thought. For example, the editors included Manuel da Nóbrega's Carta from 1558, which shows the Jesuit's “pedagogy of fear” after the killing and devouring in a cannibalistic ritual of the first Brazilian bishop, Pero Sardinha, in 1556 by the Caetés. In the letter, he defends the subjugation of the “gentiles” as the necessary condition of their conversion (87). However, Nóbrega's more nuanced positions are to be found in works not included here. For example, his Diálogo sobre a Conversão dos Gentio (1555–56) affirms the fundamental humanity of the Amerindians, and his Caso da Mesa Consciência (1567) advocates for the rights of the Amerindians against the Portuguese enslavers. Moreover, in other letters, Nóbrega endorsed and promoted marriage between Portuguese settlers and Amerindians. This defense of interracial marriage contrasts the Portuguese colonization with the racial exclusivism of the Puritan settlement in North America. Moreover, it demonstrates a policy continuation with another document, Diretório dos Índios (1755–58), that supports a similar policy under secular authority (263). Nóbrega's example illustrates the complexity of the intellectual history of Portugal and its overseas empire and reinforces the significance of this excellent volume that will open new paths for academic exploration.
To navigate those uncharted waters, the editors provide a brilliant introduction that maps the historical development of Portuguese political thought and contextualizes all authors. Moreover, before every document they provide a brief bibliography, the political and intellectual context, and a summary. Hundreds of footnotes, an extensive bibliography, and an index provide a helpful compass for researchers. Overall, Political Thought in Portugal and Its Empire is exceptional. It will prove invaluable for scholars of modern intellectual history and political thought and help to better integrate Portugal into the broader European intellectual history as well as into Latin American political thought.
